Category Archives: Xueers :D

The Family Acceptance Project is an evidenced based best practices research, intervention, and education project on family therapy for families with queer and questioning youth. It’s goals are to decrease health risks, suicide rates, substance abuse, HIV, and homelessness of LGBTQ youth through family therapy and education. They are housed at SFSU but need your donations, no matter where you live, and your voice, if you are in CA, to keep the project going.

One of the things they do is record family stories about how individual family members understand sexuality and how queer kids see themselves within the context of their families. Here is an example:

There have been strong women of color at the center of Hip Hop theorizing since its inception. Many of these women have never received the recognition they deserve for their artistry or their profound critical feminist eye focused clearly on the experience of women of color at the margins and intersections of multiple identities. These artists have struggled to have their voices heard in and outside of Hip Hop even as they inspire, mentor, and help provide strength to face any number of gendered oppressions. Many of them have worked just as diligently at empowering young women and providing critical analysis of engendered experiences as they have at being the best at their craft. Often these things are inseparable. And yet, these women’s work has been overshadowed by the racist and racialized sexist discourses that only want to focus on the “video ho” until recently. (see my posts on Hip Hop for AfAm herstory and LGBT history month for more thorough posts and links to Hip Hop feminism and Hip Hop feminists.)

While this shift has been important, I think currently there is far too much mainstream attention to Hip Hop feminism as the *only* form of feminism(s) of color. On the one hand, the emphasis represents a needed intervention into mainstream discourse about the “video-ho” in which black men are seen as the most misogynist men in the world and women of color are internalized sexists needing rescue from their “culture of violence, sex, and drugs.” On the other, the slowly won recognition of feminists for whom Hip Hop and B Girls have been critical forms of expression, solidarity, and empowerment has come at the price of the recognition by mainstream of feminists of color outside of these stereotyped (tho not stereotypical) scenes. This is not the fault of Hip Hop feminists or people doing needed documenting work on their movements but rather the ongoing problem of tokenizing woc feminist contributions by mainstream academic theorists and educators. In the last few years, scholars like myself who work on race and gender have been introduced as or referred to verbally and in print as “hip hop feminists” or asked what we think or will we write an article about Hip Hop feminism in the same way we were referred to as Womanists when Alice Walker coined the term and still have to fight for the right to define ourselves and our affiliations. My concern then is that there are at least two camps here: (1) those who want to embrace, document, and explore the meaning, history, and empowerment behind Hip Hop feminism and (2) those who see it as just a new word for “black feminists over there”. One way to posit a counter-narrative to the latter is to keep writing, keep filming, keep talking about what Hip Hop feminism is and about all of the feminisms engaged in by women of color in which Hip Hop feminism is only one iteration.

So I am publishing this call for papers on Hip Hop feminism to encourage the continued struggle to talk about feminisms by women of color in arena that often posits us as both singular (ie one kind of feminism) and perpetual victims (in this case the video-ho) in need of feminism. I do so out of solidarity with the project of naming, claiming, and documenting our feminisms and our activism but also with the caution to take on the task of clarity and specificity in your writing so that you lend to both the needed discussion of the specific feminism under discussion and to the larger discourse about the longstanding presence of women of color in activist, feminist, circles.

Also I would encourage readers to consider some of the queer and/or differently-abled black and Latina Hip Hop artists highlighted on this blog or even in this post for your potential papers/presentations. Just as interventions need to be made in the way mainstream feminist academics are approaching Hip Hop feminism as the new Womanism, interventions need to be made into the ways scholars have often shied away from discussions of queer sexualities or assumed able-bodiedness or cis gender. There are sub-topics in the call specifically open to making this challenge, where you could take the advantage.

Please find the CFP below:

Black and Brown Feminisms in Hip Hop Media

University of Texas at San Antonio – March 4-5, 2011

Black and Latina feminist scholars offer multiple ways of understanding feminist cultures that transcend ideological borders and patriarchal conventions. More recently, Black and Latina feminists have negotiated the positionality of the woman of color in the ever-changing world of Hip Hop since its inception. The Black and Brown Feminisms in Hip Hop Media Conference situates Black and Latina feminist theory in the context of Hip Hop representation to discuss ways Hip Hop music, film, and club industries fetishize, exploit, celebrate, empower and/or disempower Black and Brown women.
This interdisciplinary conference will feature unpublished work on women in Hip Hop to exchange ideas, share research, and initiate a sustained conversation by and about Black and Brown women in Hip Hop media. Vital to this discussion is attention to the blurring lines between Black and Latina feminist studies and a dialogue that attempts to understand an interweaving history of objectification, struggle, and potential for agency. How do we read Black and Brown women in Hip Hop culture? What readings of Black and Brown women other than conventional black feminist readings and Latina feminist analyses are cogent? What theories enable those readings? Finally, what would an investigation into autobiographical stories of video models yield? How would those narratives differ from that of more conventional readings?
A select number of accepted papers will be included in a one-day, academic conference at the University of Texas at San Antonio as a part of UTSA’s celebration of Women’s History Month on March 4, 2011 with a Hip Hop performance from local Texas as well as national hip hop artists on the evening of March 5, 2011. This conference will be an opportunity for presenters to share views and concerns on the growing intersections between Black and Brown women in hip hop culture. Possible Panel Topics Include:

For many people, celebrating the Monday mid-day Coming Out tweet by Ricky Martin, and the post to which it linked, seems a little late. Very few celebrities who have garnered as much critical acclaim and public adoration have been so clearly living inside a glass closet than Ricky Martin. However, it would be wrong to dismiss Martin’s coming out story just because we all saw it coming. His struggle for self-acceptance is no less relevant or heartbreaking than any other. Perhaps more importantly to the rest of us, his struggle highlights the continued power of homophobia and heterosexism to make people turn on themselves and deny the very heart of who they are just to be accepted. And unlike 18 year old Derrick Martin from the previous post who is learning the lessons of hatred far too early, Ricky Martin is unlearning them so very late.

As he put it in his own words:
ENGLISH:

Many people told me: “Ricky it’s not important”, “it’s not worth it”, “all the years you’ve worked and everything you’ve built will collapse”, “many people in the world are not ready to accept your truth, your reality, your nature”. Because all this advice came from people who I love dearly, I decided to move on with my life not sharing with the world my entire truth. Allowing myself to be seduced by fear and insecurity became a self-fulfilling prophecy of sabotage. Today I take full responsibility for my decisions and my actions.

This is the lesson that not only society but often our loved ones (friends, family, mentors) teach us. Derrick Martin learned it from his parents when they kicked him out this month for wanting to bring his boyfriend to prom and is re-learning it every day from the adults in his small town. Ricky Martin learned it from his own friends and colleagues, some of whom just wanted to ride the Vida Loca gravy train and some who really thought they had his best interests at heart. Everyone who has ever come out to themselves and to others can point to these people in their own lives. The “good intentions” of homophobia unite us across regions, languages, spaces, classes, etc. And each of us has had to ask who will we love more? How will we love?

So no, Ricky Martin’s coming out saga is not a revelation to anyone paying attention. But to watch a young boy go from Menudo to Soap Opera Heart Throb to evasive denial on 20-20 complete with a beautiful beard to claim he “was always the macho” to finally, this:

ENGLISH:

But fear of my truth? Not at all! On the contrary, It fills me with strength and courage …

These years in silence and reflection made me stronger and reminded me that acceptance has to come from within and that this kind of truth gives me the power to conquer emotions I didn’t even know existed.

…

I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am.

is not just a thing of beauty, it is a reminder. The path we travel is hard not just because of the people who openly hate but those who, whether wittingly or unknowingly, disguise their homophobia as love. For me his words, though late, remind us that it is never too late to love ourselves and to let that love be strong enough to demand that others love us back as we are.

—-

all quotes come from Ricky Martin’s Coming Out story on his official website here. (You can read his whole story in his upcoming book.)

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The request has come in for “cool people of color indie films/documentaries” from Black Folk. Part of the request is really about films that are teachable since the goal is to find films to use in class. For me, teachable films may not alway be “cool” films. Many of the films below are among my favorites to watch and to teach. You can follow the links beside those that have been reviewed on this blog or listed in my movies to watch over and over post. I’ve committed to posting more reviews of the films on this list after realizing how many people are unaware of the breadth o films by, for, starring or co-starring a queer person of color particularly those that do not recreate stereotype.

However, despite the plethora of movies on this list and others on the blog that I absolutely love, it should be noted that there are many documentaries and films I use in class that have problematic elements or that are not among the movies that I would watch regularly myself. As learning material they are amazing because they provide opportunities to both learn from the good points of the films and to critically examine the slippages. I’ve never been one who subscribes to the all or nothing school of intellectual inquiry, ie I don’t think we can educate ourselves and others if we subscribe to the idea that film or politics have to perfectly reflect a single definition of identity or desire in order to be accurate otherwise it is killing people. After all, our communities are wide and varied & just looking at some of the discussion on films on this blog alone point out to differences in how we define queer cinema, critical interventions in queer media, etc.

I’m also not a big fan of films that victim blame, play oppression olympics, vilify cultures rather than anti-gay or trans ideologies, etc. While these are also teachable, they require advanced standing and are not entertaining unless you too subscribe to the unexamined ideologies they present. I’ve tried not to include any of those films here, though there are a few that will require supplemental reading for students inclined to see poc as more homophobic or to question the legitimacy of transgender identity. I have marked them accordingly.

Also since I teach globally, many are also “foreign films.” It can get muddy to include global people of color in a list on N. American people of color and vice versa, however I think it is equally important to think about global constructions of the intersections of race, sexuality, and gender transgression to better develop a language for understanding those intersections truly mean. To be honest, sometimes “foreign films” do a better job of representing intersections and cultural perspectives outside of white N. American norms than what is available in the U.S.

So here is my list. Many of these will be reviewed on the blog at some point or have been reviewed already (see links):

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A person on twitter asked me what my favorite, “watch over and over” queer movies are . . . Long time readers know I teach queer media and it is one of my favorite subjects to get all femme-fantastic fangirl about. So you know I am sharing my answer with you all right?! (Long time readers should also be able to answer this question w/me.) One thing, this list is supposed to be films I’d watch repeatedly for entertainment and is not the same list I would generate if I was listing the top GLBTQI movies. Several of the movies that would make that list would be much older than the ones on this list and include films like Watermelon Woman, Boys Don’t Cry, and Lilies. Nor does this list include movies I find deeply amusing or intriguing but don’t watch nearly as much as the ones on the list or I have stopped watching as much as the other ones, those films would include East Side Story, Johns, D.E.B.S, Puccini for Beginners, Nico and Dani, & Imagine Me and You. And as if cheating by putting all these extra films into this preamble were not enough, you know I listed more than 10 right?

Latter Days – b/c I know what it’s like to grow up in a religious tradition that denies our right to exist and yet provides a foundation from which your moral compass on most things is set; the good news is you can have both see my post on Bible lawsuit if you just shook your head

When Night is Falling- tho the exotic can be problematic it is still cinematically beautiful and the love story at its center is entralling and b/c like Latter Days it dares you to reject a faith that denies love but not faith in general.

The Incredible True Adventures of Two Girls in Love – this movie has everything you could possibly want in it, loving same sex parents, crazy academics, and a love story to move mountains

Urbania – its depressing but fascinating and I love teaching it b/c it gives us a way to talk abt “truths” and meaning in a world that denies oppression while perpetuating

Show Me Love – this is the cutest coming out story you will likely ever see

Donald Strachey Mysteries – yes I’m cheating b/c there are 4 but Chad Allen turns in one of the most heart felt performances in this series talking about DADT and Sebastien Spence’s performance in Ice Blue is spot on. besides you know I love thrillers

Hedwig and the Angry Inch – if you don’t want to sing along, there is something wrong with you I love the “Origin of Love”

Saving Face – b/c I love the way it juxtaposes several women’s issues and thoroughly grounds women’s sexuality at every turn

No Regret – it is a depressing film abt repression and desire, as well as class and classism, but amidst all the bad happening to the fam in this movie, when they get it right there is something so beautiful about it I could watch this movie multiple times in a single night

Family Pack – the juxtaposition of ability and desire are often problematic but some times quite poignant. Again this is another family drama in which women’s choices and desires take center stage across a wide spectrum and there is something quaint and sweet about it that resonates.

The film listed on youtube as “Family Pack” is actually Feulle

Broken Sky – its lyrical beauty and ability to express profound emotion without words is cinematic magic. (warning lots of naked in this unofficial trailer)

Better than Chocolate – art, bookstores, first love, and musical numbers, with a wide range of lesbian identities and an equally centered trans woman, can you ask for anything more?

Antarcitca – b/c it is so beautiful, seriously if you’ve forgotten what love is or fallen into a rut, rent this movie and be reminded.

Shelter – which as I have said before resonates at a cellular level for me and leaves me unable to write a review not b/c of the coming out issues but b/c of the class ones.

Butch Jamie – b/c its just great. watch it.

Want to really know what I think about this subject, read the blog, ask about obscure queer films, and representation on tv. I am currently crushing on both the representations in Skins on BBC America & the Israeli show Until the Wedding & that’s just for starters. 🙂

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Teatro Q is a safe space for Queer People of Color and Allies to explore performance and theater, develop skills and grow as artists in this 4-day workshop.

September 9-11, 2009 from 6:00-9:00 PM

and September 12, 2009 from 12:00-3:00 PMWhere: Alma de Mujer Center for Social Change 13621 FM 2769 Austin, Texas 78726

Who should attend: Established, emerging and inexperienced artists who are interested in enhancing, developing, and experimenting to increase their artistic depth through performance.

Fee: $50 love offering is asked/suggested from participants. (Fee is waived for those unable to pay/scholarships available)

An application process is necessary due to limited space. Please complete the brief application no later than September 4, 2009. You will be notified as soon as possible if you are selected for participation. Please e-mail applications to xiqana@gmail.com.